The Music: Can there be a favorite??


I'm a frequent poster on Poison's official messageboard. Frequently (and occasionally annoyingly) the question "What's your favorite Poison song?" arises. There is no way to answer that. There is no "favorite," at least I don't think there is. Afterall, the song that you identified most with and enjoyed the most by a band last week, might be different this week. There are however 2 songs that hold a great deal of meaning to me.

The first is "Something to Believe In" It's obvious, don't you think? After all, Poison gave me something to believe in when I felt that I had absolutely nothing.

The other was one of the bonus tracks on the Swallow This: Live album, "Only Time Will Tell." A song sung by my favorite band, that stated, plainly and perfectly, everything that they are to me. I still can't hear that song without tears coming to my eyes. It is, to me, one of the most beautiful and meaningful songs in the world. I have no idea what inspired them to write it, but I'm very glad that they did.

Another question frequently raised, is "What's your favorite Poison album?" That one is simple. Native Tongue. I know there are a lot of Poison fans out there who'll disagree with me. Fans who'll say it just doesn't "feel" like Poison or whatever. Nonetheless, it IS a Poison album, and it is the closest to "technical brilliance" a Poison album will ever be.* Am I a fan of Ritchie Kotzen? As a guitar player, YES. He's a wonderful player, a great writer -- as a person, he's a piece of shit.** But that doesn't make me love the album any less. It's bluesy, and a little more aggressive than Poison usually is. I like that. The songwriting is superb.


* - this is not a dig against Poison, Poison was not built on "technical brilliance" Poison was built on fun, party rock-n-roll.
** - this is my opinion of the man, don't like it? Go fuck yourself. Anyone who'll fuck over a bandmate like that is a piece of shit in my book.

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